With the crowd buzzing late in the third quarter, Durant reached the mark for the 38th consecutive time, leaving him two games short of Jordan’s accomplishment, which is the most in the past 50 years.

He finished with 31 points and nine assists to help Oklahoma City defeat the Jazz 116-96 on Sunday afternoon.

Jordan did it for 40 straight games for the Chicago Bulls during the 1986-87 season. Durant is aware of the mark, but the NBA’s leading scorer left worrying about it to the crowd at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Sitting in the last chair on Indiana’s bench, David West stared straight ahead, unable to look at the court.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock on another disheartening loss, West seemed dazed.

The Pacers’ promising season is unraveling

Dion Waiters scored 19 points, Luol Deng added 15 and the Cleveland Cavaliers kept their playoff push going with a 90-76 win Sunday over the skidding Pacers, who are losing their grip on the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Tristan Thompson had 16 rebounds as the Cavs snapped a nine-game losing streak against Indiana. Cleveland came in three games behind slumping, idle Atlanta for the conference’s final playoff spot. With seven games left — six against teams with losing records — the Cavs still have a chance.

The Pacers, meanwhile, are falling apart. They lost their fifth straight road game and now lead Miami by one game for the East’s top record and home-court advantage throughout the postseason.

The Golden State Warriors have signed free agent center Hilton Armstrong to a 10-day contract as a Call-Up from the Warriors’ NBA Development League affiliate in Santa Cruz, the team announced today.

Armstrong, 29, has appeared in 32 games (23 starts) with the Santa Cruz Warriors this season, averaging 12.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.75 blocks (seventh-best in the D-League) in 28.2 minutes while hitting 55.9 percent from the field (ninth). The 6-11 center has played in eight games with Golden State over two separate stints (December 11–29/February 22-March 3) this season, averaging 2.3 rebounds in 4.4 minutes.

Originally selected by the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets with the 12th overall pick of the 2006 NBA Draft, Armstrong has played in six NBA seasons with the Hornets (2006-09), Sacramento Kings (2009-10), Houston Rockets (2009-10), Washington Wizards (2010-11), Atlanta Hawks (2010-2011) and Warriors, owning career averages of 3.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 11.6 minutes over 285 games (39 starts). He has also played professionally with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne in France, Panathinaikos in Greece and Changsha Bank Guangdong in China.

Here’s ESPN Los Angeles reporting on the Clippers, who on Saturday treated Big Baby Glen Davis like a big baby:

Los Angeles Clippers forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis was sent back to the team’s locker room by coach Doc Rivers with 10:21 left in the second quarter and missed the rest of Saturday night’s game for disciplinary issues.

Davis was visibly upset as he walked toward the team bench after being taken out of the game for Ryan Hollins in the 118-107 win over the Houston Rockets.

Davis exchanged words with Rivers and was told to sit down. Clippers assistant coach Alvin Gentry attempted to talk to Davis, but Rivers apparently had seen and heard enough and told team security to escort Davis back to the locker room.

“Nothing went on with me,” Rivers said after the game. “I thought Baby was just too emotional, and for me, if you’re too emotional I always send you back to the locker room and keep you back there until the next game. I love Baby. I just didn’t think emotionally he was ready to play tonight, so we told him to go to the locker room.”

Homeless before his teens, a father at 15 … and a college basketball champ who persevered to play 11 years in the NBA. Sound like a great movie? Derek Anderson hopes some big time Hollywood types think so.

The former Kentucky Wildcat and Portland Trailblazer tells TMZ Sports he’s shopping around an autobiographical screenplay he wrote — and hoping to hook a director like Lee Daniels or Mark Wahlberg.

His story is pretty wild … while injuries hampered him at times in the pros — his game was tight enough that Michael Jordan handpicked DA to rep the Jordan brand.

Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting on the 76ers, who were on a 26-game losing streak but finally won a game Saturday, beating the Detroit Pistons:

Break up the 76ers.

OK, maybe it’s early for that. But their 26-game, record-tying losing streak came to an end Saturday night. Dominating from start to finish, the Sixers defeated the Detroit Pistons, 123-98, at the Wells Fargo Center.

They improved to 16-57 while winning their first game since besting the Boston Celtics on Jan. 29. It was their first home victory since topping the Charlotte Bobcats on Jan. 15. Since then, they had lost 18 straight at Wells Fargo.

The Sixers downplayed the victory.

“It’s just like another win,” reserve guard Tony Wroten said. “It’s the NBA. You all are talking about the pressure. We weren’t worried about a streak. We were just trying to get better every day.”

Sixers coach Brett Brown said he never mentioned the losing streak to his team.

“I never went into a room and said, ‘We have to get out of the streak,’ ” he said. “We talked about, ‘Let’s bang out great days.’ I’m glad tonight that the win validates that.”

There is a College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville and a FIBA (international) Hall of Fame in Spain.

But when it comes to NBA inductees, they go into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., along with those who made their marks collegiately, internationally and in the women’s game.

That said, because the Naismith Hall is about more than the NBA, because it also is about college and international play, because it is about using the game for greater good, a week from Monday should be a particularly meaningful day for the Miami Heat.

It should be the day Alonzo Mourning is named to join previously inducted Pat Riley in Springfield, with the Naismith Class of 2014 to be announced in the hours before the NCAA Tournament championship game in Dallas.

Warriors veteran big man Jermaine O’Neal called any talk of firing coach Mark Jackson “ridiculous” and “unfair” before offering a vote of confidence unique to his own NBA career.

O’Neal is considering retirement, and if the 35-year-old were to decide to play next season, he said it would be because of Jackson and that the team he would choose would be the Warriors.

“It’s a couple reasons why I will come back,” O’Neal said Saturday. “This fan base, this organization is first class, and obviously my teammates are great, as well.

“But the No. 1 reason that I will come back and play another year is because of Coach Jackson. I’m absolutely, 100 percent positive about that. He makes it easy to come in this gym every day, and there’s not a lot of coaches that do that.”